Progressivism had failed in the 1930s. Despite technological innovations, all of the social problems of humanity were just as bad as they...

All of the historical narratives that I’ve discussed so far have one thing in common—they are secular. They focus almost exclusively on...

I was a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 2020 to 2022—during some of the most tumultuous years politically in...

There’s one more major narrative about agricultural history that I haven’t mentioned yet—not because it isn’t important, but because it’s...

Organic farming has always questioned the progressive narrative of history. It has to. After all, if the progressive narrative is true,...

History is storytelling, and there are different types of narratives that can be used to frame a historical event. Last week, I...

Do a Google search for Euell Gibbons today, and you’re not likely to turn up much about his environmental activism or connection to...

An agrarian society, where most people live on the land and grow their own food. An emphasis on urban farming, composting, and...

The southeast coast of Maine is dotted with hundreds of islands. Some are large, covered with vacation homes, and visited regularly by...

In June 1966, editor Bob Rodale announced a new series of article in Organic Gardening and Farming magazine. Titled “The Organic Nature...

As I write this, the wild pin cherry trees are just finishing blooming, white petals drifting down to the ground in a fragrant snow. The...

One of the most difficult aspects of researching the early history of organic farming in the United States is the lack of documentary...

As I’ve learned more about the earliest organic farmers in the United States, I’ve tried to figure out what they had in common. What made...

Organic farming did not start in a vacuum. It was part of a broad range of social, political, and agricultural movements that were...

As far as I am aware, the first book to outline a complete farming system that we would call “organic” today was Ehrenfried Pfeiffer’s...

Beginning in the 1950s, J.I. Rodale started writing historical accounts about how he started Organic Gardening magazine. He always told...

I have a confession to make. In all of my earlier articles about the history of organic farming, I left out one critically important...

Beginning in 1950, soil scientists and agronomists began to claim that organic farming couldn’t feed the world. Surprisingly, they did...

Agronomists in the mid-20th century who claimed that organic farming had lower yields never read Organic Gardening magazine. Beginning in...

It’s not something the agronomists who talk about “feeding the world” usually mention, but most of the starvation that happened in the...